Santa Monica Pier

Today the Bundschuh Clan headed out for the Santa Monica Pier. Today was one of the hotter days here in California that we have had so I knew by the end of the day our Fun Meter was going to be pegged, but I am getting ahead of myself. We arrive at the pier around 12 pm with two children who are so excited to ride the famous ferris wheel. All week we have been talking about it and we even looked it up online, so when we pull up to the pier the shouting of "there it is, there it is" is loud and intense. We park and head directly for the wheel, but of course getting on the ferris wheel can't be easy so we walk up and not only is the ferris wheel not open but ALL the rides have been rented out for a private party and won't be open to the public until 3 pm. Luckily the carousel is open, but it is at the opposite end of the pier, but it gets the crying to subside so that's where we head. We now have about 2 1/2 hours to kill before the ferris wheel opens because after talking about it all week we have to get on that thing so we decide to start with eating lunch. There is a restaurant right on the pier called Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. which is from the movie Forrest Gump so of course that is the theme for the restaurant. It's very touristy, but close and it serves pizza so the kids automatically love it. It was really good, and we got a primo booth overlooking the beach and pier, and here's the best part - they served tasty cocktails! I thought with 2 pina colada's I might be able to survive the next 2 hours. After lunch we still had over an hour before the wheel opened so we decided to change into or suits early and swim before we went on. The beach was packed but the kids had a great time. Lauren earlier this week got her feet in the ocean so today she had a great time holding Mommie's or Daddie's hand and "jumping" over the waves. The water can't go any higher then her knees or she freaks out and runs up the beach, but hey, baby steps. It is finally 3 pm and after standing in line for about 10 minutes to shower off our feet we head for the ferris wheel, and this is where the Fun Meter begins to get pegged. We then stand in line for about 20 minutes with the kids both asking every two minutes "are we going to get on?" We all sit down and go around about three times and the kids then begin to ask "when are we going to get off?" This is when I realize the walk back to the car is going to be long and riddled with crying. The kids on the way back to the car tell Daddie they had a great day so he buys everyone cotton candy and we all head home. It was a really fun day and you can see all the pictures on set Santa Monica Pier.

Aaron had his first softball game today and although his team lost he looked good! The pictures from the game are under set June_2008.